The Only People I'm Certain I Love
by shadowhuntingtributes
Summary: Katniss and Peeta are happily married and have 2 children. How do the kids react when Peeta has a flashback?


The bottoms of my worn leather boots crunch under the fallen autumn leaves. I wield the wooden recurve bow that Effie had sent me as a birthday present 5 years back after telling her that the longbow that I'd used for so long, made by my father; had finally broken. It took me a while to break this bow in, but it has grown on me.

I stop in my tracks, disguised by the brush and trees surrounding me, and listen. Listen for footsteps, grunts, whines, anything that signals me that an animal is nearby.

I wait a little longer, and right as I'm about to start moving again, I hear it; a faint whistle. 4 notes long and terrifyingly similar to a call I'd once used to signal that I was okay.

I know I shouldn't. I know she's not here. But even after all these years, I can't help but cry out.

"Rue!" I clap my hand over my mouth and shake my head. Tears start to pool in my eyes, and before I can start to cry, I hear a voice.

"Momma?" My head snaps up. I look straight ahead and see a small, 3 year old toddler with wavy blonde hair and my grey eyes. He had made the whistle. This whistle was played any time The Hunger Games was mentioned on the news, and he had caught on to it. "Momma, who's Rue?"

I can't hold it in. A tear escapes my eyes, and before I can wipe it away, he sees, and runs over to me on his chubby toddler legs. He doesn't say a word; just sits in my lap and holds me. My son.

"Oh, Nathanial," I breathe into his hair, "Momma will tell you one day, but not this day. Let's go back to the house and see if dad has made any cheese buns?" I'd named my son after my father; it was the first and only name I could fathom naming my son.

I didn't get any hunting done; but like me, Nathanial loves Peeta's cheese buns. We had had a traditional district twelve wedding 5 years after the war had ended. It's hard for me to think of how I had almost chosen Gale. We were never meant to love each other like Peeta and I do. Gale and I were exactly the same. Fire and fire only cause more destruction.

Nathanial and I make it to our house in Victor's Village. Before I can open the door, a girl only a few years older than my son steps out. Her hair is dark brown like mine, and falls over her shoulders. Her eyes are replicas of Peeta's, but are filled with terror.

"Rosemary, what's wrong?" I'd decided to keep my mother's tradition of naming the daughters of the family after plants; Rosemary meaning dew of the sea, which reminds me of Finnick. It fits.

"It's dad, he's having one of his," she glances at Nathanial, "One of his moments."

My eyes widen. He's having one of his flashbacks that are leftover from his hijacking. That was for sure one of the worst things that has ever happened to me in my entire life. I couldn't even bear to think about it.

His flashbacks were almost annual now. They came once or twice a year, and sometimes, none at all.

"Stay out here with Nathanial while I go help him." I open the door and immediately see Peeta huddled in the corner of the room, gripping a chair so tight that his knuckles look like they're about to bust through his skin.

I shut the door behind me and run over to Peeta, jumping over Buttercup who was indeed, still alive. He swatted at me as I glided over him.

"Peeta!" I stand in front of him and try to lift his face to look at me. I was always cautious; he could lash out at me thinking I was a mutt at any moment. "Peeta, it's me, Katniss. I love you. Come back to me," His dilated pupils shrink, and I think it's over, and then dilate again.

"The mutts, the mutts, they're my children! They're dead! My babies were thrown into the games and killed and those goddamned gamemakers made them into the mutt's that were in our first Games!"

Peeta had never had an attack that involved our children being dead. Seeing the hurt on his face nearly killed me,

"Peeta no, they're alive! The Games are gone! They're outside right now! Stay with me, Peeta. Stay with me." He gripped the chair again, hard.

"You won't… you won't take me. You won't take my children! You will not _CONTROL ME_!" He swigs the chair at the wall, and it hits it hard, but is undamaged. He collapses to the ground. It's over.

"Oh, Peeta…" I sit in front of him, take his hands, and kiss him. Peeta and I have had millions of kisses. But now, they are full of love from the years we've spent together, saving each other, learning to love each other through everything that's happened. No love is stronger than ours.

"Katniss, I love you," His hand finds my hair that had come undone from the struggle of getting him through his attack.

"I love you too, Peeta. Always."

Suddenly his head snapped up, almost causing ours heads to collide.

"Where are the kids? I need to see them, make sure they're alright…" He starts to get up, but his false leg makes it harder.

"Just wait here, I'll get them." I kiss his forehead and go to fetch Rosemary and Nathanial. I cross the room, now stepping instead of jumping over Buttercup, and open the door. They almost fall in from having their ears pressed to the door. Obviously it was Rosemary who had done it first. Nathanial copies everything she does. The girl's eyes are filled with fear, while the boy's are the same as always; lit up, innocent and happy. He doesn't understand what's happened, but Rosemary was just now starting to understand.

I take both their hands and crouch down so I'm eye level with Rosemary, but Nathanial still has to look up at me.

I whisper, "Both of you, your father is right behind the counter. Go and give him the biggest hug you can and tell him you love him, okay?" They nod and race in together. I stand back up and walk over to make sure everything's alright.

I look down and see them all hugging and laughing. Peeta has tears in his eyes, but they aren't of fear, nor sadness, but of joy. I smile one of my rare smiles. This is my family. The only people I am certain I love.

**NOTE: Nathanial IS NOT the official name of Katniss' father. His name is not mentioned in the books.**


End file.
